Whether it's a conversation with a friend, a word that is penned, or a craft that is made, everything we do leaves a stitch in the fabric of time. Join us as we investigate the stitches of the past and present...

"To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: ... a time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak" (Ecclesiastes 3:1, 7).

Pages

Monday, November 18, 2013

Wrestling With Sin

For
God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; but each one is
tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed. Then,
after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is
full-grown, gives birth to death.James
1:13b-15The spider looked innocent
enough, just like all the others I’d allowed inside my home, until it jumped on
my husband’s arm and bit him.

I laughingly refer to my approach
toward spiders as my amnesty program. As long as the spiders behave, they can
come inside unharmed. My goodwill doesn’t extend to deadly spiders like black
widows or brown recluses. However, at that point, my husband didn’t see the
humor in being bitten by a harmless spider or my amnesty program.

The previous autumn, I’d allowed
a rather large spider to come under the door every night and run around. By
morning he’d be gone. Each night, this repeated itself until the spider climbed
over the couch and landed on my husband’s lap while he watched television. He
wasn’t amused by this episode either and put a stop to this nightly visit. J

I began to see the parallels
between allowing the spiders free run of my home and sin. The spiders spin
their webs. I sweep them down, and within a week, they’re back. I justify it by
not allowing in deadly spiders. What harm can come of that?

The Bible instructs us to flee
from sin, yet we allow it to creep into our lives and then routinely sweep out
the debris without fully killing the sin. We comfort ourselves with the
knowledge that we don’t commit deadly sins like murder or stealing, but the end
result is the same. When we least expect it, the regular garden-variety sin has
bitten us and left a mark on our lives.

What sin are you struggling to
rid your life of today? Perhaps it’s a small sin you routinely wrestle with, and
it’s dragging you down because you won’t get rid of it once and for all. Ask
God to help you identify the areas of your life that need cleaning up.

Meanwhile, I’ve got some cobwebs
to sweep down. Again. J

Laura
Hodges Poole is a freelance writer with three dozen articles, devotions, and
short stories in publication. She writes Christian romance novels and is a 2012
RWA Emily finalist, placing second amongst a nationwide field of Christian and
secular entries. Laura is also an Associate Editor with Christian Devotions ministry. Her passion is encouraging others in
their Christian walk through her blog, A Word of Encouragement. She
may be contacted at laurapoole565@gmail.com.

Prize Rules

Winners will be announced in the day's comments or in the Weekly Wind-up post at the beginning of each week. All winners have one week to claim their prize by contacting us. Sorry, we only ship within the USA. Offer void where prohibited. Odds of winning vary due to the number of entrants.